With April approaching, all eyes are set on the IPL matches to be held in the mid of April onwards. The IPL is not only promotes the game, but it makes a good business sense too, and it will fetch loads of money in the coming years for its investors. But then it is cricket but what about the national game, the fate of Indian hockey. Is IPL just good business sense or also good common sense? Indians not watch their national game in large as they do cricket.

Except for the malign presence at the top of the Indian Hockey Federation of the retired Punjab cop KPS Gill. For almost a decade plus this man has single handedly ensured that Indian hockey is not the force that it was, even after the Europeans and the Australians had started making their presence in the international arena felt? Even a former chief of the International Hockey Federation (IHF) was not so many years ago constrained to bemoan the loss of Indian hockey.

Once hockey was one sport which most Indians had come to accept as the country’s national game? Every school, every college and university and every State boasted of a hockey team. Inter-club tournaments in various cities had come to be accepted as a routine. Gill has been extremely intolerant of criticism from colleagues within the IHF. He has acted as a virtual dictator even in matters involving selection of players, let alone the rapid-fire hiring and firing of coaches for the team. He is known to have objected to the presence in the team of individual players, and not necessarily on their form or performance. It is always his whims and fancies that have prevailed.  India’s failure to qualify for the Olympics has brought shame to the nation.

To build up hockey or any sport you have to go to the grassroots, talent-hunt; building up infrastructure at the district level by providing infrastructure and other such modern accessories. One is not supposed to put an end to local am national competitions. If Mr. KPS Gill is not persuaded to relax his stranglehold on Indian hockey, this may well be the end of the Indian hockey dream.  But is he only the culprit? The answer is a no. A capital ‘NO.’ The kind of money spent on the game and the salaries these hockey players get are not enough to support their families.

Cricketers in India are like God to the citizens of the country. They make and mar lives of many Indian fans but not many of us are aware of the hockey team faces. The kind of money these cricketers get is not bad but other sports too need aid from the government and the corporate sector as the game needs money. The hockey game needs the right marketing too so that youth of today is attracted to the national game too. There should be more games at the national levels and the district levels and government should ensure that such games are conducted and looked out well. Being hockey the national game, it needs its due importance to do ‘CHAK DE’.